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Heavenly Father, Lord of hosts, You have become our righteousness. Before you we humbly bow in repentance, requesting forgiveness and cleansing in your great and Holy name. As your children, we ask that you might nurture us again today through the words and personal insights you have blessed us with from our history. Guide our minds and our mouths as we glorify your Holy name together.
Response to Leviticus 13:1-59
Did you have a hard time reading that passage? What could talking about infectuous skin diseases have to do with our lives today? Haven't we moved well beyond the health concerns of that day and age? Perhaps a better question is, as we have moved well beyond in the field of health, why have we taken so much longer to move ahead in the fields of faith and spirituality? Why can we apply the teachings of health to our secular educations, but in the fields of faith and spirituality we generally have dismissed the idea of God altogether due to our confusion and relentless selfish attempts to separate Him from the rest of humanity? Why is it today that even within our faith based education systems we are generally asking the students to become experts at religious concepts that have failed to bring people into the Kingdom beyond the short term and are centuries old. I do not feel we need to get down to the basics as they were set 500 - 2000 years ago. Let's seek a firm foundation set "In the Beginning" encompassing all of creation, affecting life as we know it! "Faith expressions classes" belong in Academia, dispelling the modern myth that God does not exist and empowering student development in sharing their faith.
Therefore, in the words of my Priest, I would like discuss Leviticus 13:1-59 in three general areas. 1. how shall we compare this teaching to the Kingdom of God in our modern era? 2. In what way does this passage preach a gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins? 3. How is this passage a reminder that in His desire for unity and reconcilliation, The Lord has become our righteousness?
Personally, I was feeling leprosy had little to do with today. But how similar is this to aids and cancer which are worldwide epidemics? Ask a patient of either one of these conditions whether they feel like an outcast! Perhaps you are affected, how do you relate to this passage? Within my own lifetime, I have visited a mission outpost in Nigeria and witnessed leprosy firsthand. These are real people who are infected with a wasting disease who desperately want to be healed. So, how about you? Are you sick in any way? Are you wasting away facing imminent death? How are you emotionally? Have you been in to see the therapist or other counselor lately? How about your relationships? Are they all healthy and functional? Where are your worries? Do you suffer the human condition as all of us do? In what ways can you relate to being an outcast?
I trust you realize as we drive this point home that we all suffer the human condition. Much of this we can cure. Go to therapy and fix the emotions or relationships. Go to radiation and suffer serious trauma, but remove the cancer - if you are blessed. Expose yourself to the knife and have the tumor removed. If you have enough money, you can extend life and this human condition for a long time - and then you die. At what point does one admit they are mortal and that death is inevitable? How much money is justifyable to keep one person alive at the expense of all the others footing the bill? How many societies are going bankrupt as we avoid the inevitable? What is the fear in death?
If you did not admit your mortality, I'm sure you understand that you were in denial - the rest of us did. How does this relate to the Kingdom of God? We are fallen. We cannot get up on our own. We carry in our bodies the infection of sin. You know you have it. Denying sin is about as useful as denying mortality. We'll all mess up and we'll all die. The question is - is your sin curable, or is it terminal? Again, we all have some of both. This should not be very difficult to admit, is it? The fact is, before we can function in life and avoid being an outcast, we must confess our weaknesses. We must go to the counselor or the doctor and be made well. Open wounds must be dealt with, but the permanent condition becomes a part of you that must be accepted by society. The greatest strength we have is to be able to admit our shortcomings and our desire to be healed. What we need from each other is encouragement, understanding, love, and support as we persevere through our condition. This will help our dating relationships, our marriages, our families, our employment, our lives in society, our relations with the world. Isn't our ultimate goal to remain viable and have value as members of the human condition?
The message I find in the Bible and that which I wish to share with you is that God understands the human condition. He offers Love, acceptance, help, and support. He offers counseling and healing. Whether you live or die is not of as great a concern to Him as it is to you. Through the sacrifice of His only begotten son, he has granted you the free gift of repentance and forgiveness, reconciling you back into His loving arms. He no longer sees your open wounds, but understands you are white as snow from the top of your head to the end of your toe. He sees all that He has made, and behold, it is very good. He welcomes you into back into the camp upon your request and is the first to run and wrap his loving arms around you. Now, go and present yourself before the others in the Kingdom as a testimony of what the Lord has done for you. If they don't accept you, there are grave consequences for them. They, become the ones with the open wounds in need of repentance and forgiveness. Will you forgive them? They suffer from the Human condition.
Herein lies our testimony. The Lord is my righteousness. I was sick, but He made me well. I was in prison, but He freed me. I was a stranger, but He welcomed me in. I was naked, but He clothed me. As I share this testimony with the family of God, I do not expect their judgment upon me, but their acceptance, forgiveness, and Love. Perhaps, if they feel up to it, they might share their testimony with me also, helping me to understand that I am with brothers and sisters in Christ. Perhaps they can celebrate with joy anew in the hearing of God at work in my life! Together, we can sing praises and find strength in the joy of the Lord. There was nothing we could do, no matter how hard we tried, but He has made all the difference in our lives. Praise His Holy Name. He loves us. He has cured us. Nothing can now separate us from His Almighty Love! He has accepted us back into His camp and I will praise His name till I meet Him face to face! Oh, Holy Day! Amen.
There may be a catch here that I must add. If you choose not to accept His forgiveness and healing - or if you choose not to offer that same forgiveness in your heart for your brother, you may remain an outcast.
Response to Mark 6:1-29
I mention that Mark 6:1-6 is also reflected in Matthew 13:53-58 and Luke 4:16-30. Note that there is no copyright at the time of these writings and some of them have been written exactly the same. Also note that the events are not always placed in the same order. As I have mentioned before, this is proof that various men wrote of what they saw and heard from their own memory of actual events. The contradiction of historical fact as presented through the memories of the Gospel writers is not a weakness of the Bible, but a strength and a proof of the validity that these events actually took place and were not the concoction of one individual or a group attempting to concur. How many books does the unbeliever need? Here is not only 1, but 4 which have stood the test of time. If you don't like the renditions given by the translators of the early manuscripts, learn Hebrew and check the ancient manuscripts which are availabe in nearly original separate books. Don't take the easy way out and pretend that these proofs do not exist, or that documented history did not occur. For hundreds of years, it has been assumed that Mark was the first gospel, written around 50-65 AD and that other writers used some of His material in their writings, but adjusted them to their fit their personal understandings and memory. Now, back to the historical events reflected in today's reading.
Mark 6:1-6 reflects a separate time that Jesus returned to visit His mother and family. The first was reflected in Mark 3. Luke actually represents this story as the first visit, while Matthew and Mark place it second. It is difficult for me to to understand how anyone could read Mark 6:3 and not realize that Jesus did have siblings. I would be interested to know how this verse is handled by those claiming that Jesus mother, Mary, remained a virgin. Because of their understanding of Jesus childhood, recognizing him as just another man, it was difficult for the townspeople to believe He held such a strong presence of the Spirit of God himself. Because of their knowledge of who he was as a man, he was unable to perform many miracles there. Apparently miracles depend not only on the power of God, but the faith of the community.
As the disciples prepare to go out into the field, blessed with power and authority from on high to perform miracles and cast out demons (Mark 6:7-13, Matthew 10:1-15, Luke 9:1-6), Jesus told them not to pack, but to step out in faith in their fellowman to provide for their needs. Their message was the same as John the Baptists and Jesus. Repentance and forgiveness of sins. Notice that nothing was said about judgement and eternal damnation to the unbeliever.
The ministry of Jesus and his disciples was talked about throughout the countryside because of the great signs and wonders. News of his ministry reached Herod as he had also followed the ministry of John the Baptist. In Mark 6:14-29, Matthew 14:1-12, and Luke 9:7-9 we read of the death of John the Baptist who was Jesus cousin and forbear of preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins. (Luke 1:36-80, Luke 3:1-20, Matthew 3:1-12, Mark 1:1-8, John 1:6-8, John 1:19-28.) Even as an unbeliever - and the focus of John's chastisement, Herod was fascinated by John's message and liked to listen to him. He experienced sorrow and guilt at John's death as he placed the pressures of his earthly desires above the calls of his own conscience. Have you ever given in to earthly passions and placed them over what you knew to be right?
Response to Psalm 39:1-13
It is a dangerous prayer indeed which is found in Psalm 39:8; "Save me from all my transgressions." One of toughest points of our lives is when we are being refined, suffering the consequences of our sin. And yet, we often pray that God would remove our sin from us. It's tough to quit sinning if pain and heartache are not involved. Thomas Paine wrote in his article "Common Sense" in 1776 "These are the times that try men's souls". This was a cry from oppression. A cry for justice and mercy. A cry for release from bondage. The battle would not come without pain. As these times are reflected in nations and on a worldwide scale, so they are reflected within the individual wishing to conquer sin. As in war, our battles with sin are often won with brothers who understand our cause.
If we confess our sins, our brothers can rally to our defense. If we are silent and still, our anguish increases and our hearts burn within us. In this also, God calls us to relationship. There is a battle which we cannot fight alone. David understood God's part in this, "I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this!" (vs. 9). No wonder we struggle to understand the Love of God. We experience His scourge from within! We are overcome by the blow of His hand. We are brought to distress and ruin if we do not repent and seek help to overcome our disease. We can yell in anger at our Heavenly Father, or we can be brought to our knees, humbled and reunited with family and friends who have come to our aid.
As we stand guilty as brothers among brothers, what good does it do us to refer to one another as wicked and fool? If we would talk to one another, we would realize that we share similar experiences and concerns. If we would acknowledge God's work in one another's lives, we would understand his purpose within our own. We have but a moment to learn of God's love and compassion and work on earth through one another. Let's not waste it on mockery and warfare. Let's not muzzle our mouths bustling about only in vain heaping up wealth and misfortune and committing blasphemy against God's children in other lands and cultures. Hear our prayer oh Lord, listen to our cry for help and be not deaf to our weeping. We have dwelt on this earth as aliens from one another, strangers as our fathers were. Come into our presence that we might rejoice together in your name before we depart and miss the opportunity.
Be a part of a change in our world. We don't have much time. Our focus verse for today is found in Psalm 39:4-5. "Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing befoe you. Each man's life is but a breath." There is no time to waste.
Response to Proverbs 10:10
If you caught my wink, trust me, it was not malicious. If my chatter proves me the fool, I will accept my ruin.
Until tomorrow
Rick
Monday, February 22, 2010
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